CPS ready to consider teachers' pay hikes

Chicago Public Schools board members will be voting Wednesday on whether to give teachers a 4 percent annual salary increase already promised in their contracts next year, despite looming budget deficits.

In the agenda for Wednesday's board meeting, district officials will be voting on whether the Chicago schools board "finds that there is a reasonable expectation that in Fiscal Year 2012 … it will be able to fund" the raise.

Although the raise is part of the current teacher's contract, board members have the option of voting it down by Wednesday if they cannot fund it. The increase was omitted from school principal budgets earlier this month, leading many to speculate that CPS was perhaps hoping to renege on the commitment in light of a $720 million budget deficit.

CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll says the district is not making a recommendation either way to the board.

"The choice to make that decision is solely in the hands of the board," she said.

The district on Wednesday also is considering what to do with similar increases for other unions as well, such as the Service Employees International Union, International Union of Operating Engineers and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.